Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Spam Musubi

I'm on a roll with this video thing. First I made frozen yogurt, then buckwheat crepes, and now Spam musubi! What other foods can I made in under 3 minutes (the video time limit on my digicam)?
It's been unbearably hot the past few days. Yesterday and most of today, all I ate was watermelon and cold cucumber salad. Well, after a few days of that, I wanted something more substantial to fill my belly but I didn't want to do much cooking.
Spam musubi is a popular Hawaiian plate lunch item based upon Japanese onigiri or omusubi, except with Spam instead of sushi. You can even buy fancy musubi molds to perfectly pat down your rice to the same contours as the Spam. Some people make their own version out of an empty Spam can.
I happen to like seaweed so I use a big piece of it instead of worrying about packing my rice tightly. This also eliminates any need to make the rice pretty ie. my lazy method. Typically, Spam musubi rice is often not treated with vinegar, but I like sushi rice so I add a bit of rice vinegar, Shao Xing rice wine, salt, and sugar to mine.
I hope you like this video too. If you're sick of hearing my voice, there's directions below as well.

Spam Musubi
For 6, you'll need:
A half-size container of Spam, sliced into 6 (or a full-size if you want extra for eating)
1 cup Japanese rice, cooked
To taste, but roughly 2 tsp rice vinegar, 2 tsp Mirin or Shao Xing rice wine, a few dashes of salt, a few pinches of sugar.
3 sheets of nori seaweed, cut in half lengthwise
Optional: Teriyaki or soy sauce to taste
Cook the Japanese rice as usual and when it is done cooking, add 2 tsp rice vinegar, 2 tsp Mirin or Shao Xing rice wine, a few dashes of salt, a few pinches of sugar. Taste and adjust if necessary. Set aside to cool.
Fry up Spam slices until golden. Set aside.
Take your seaweed and put a thin layer of rice on 3/4 of the nori sheet. Add teriyaki or soy sauce if you like. Lay the Spam on top and roll until you're near the end. Take a few kernels of rice and place it on the end of the nori sheet to seal.
These should be eaten right away as the seaweed will become soggy if it sits out too long.
Enjoy!

You know what- I left comments in WoknSpoon about sushi with sausage, and you made sushi with spam! And ignorant me did not know spam musubi is a Hawaiian cuisine itself! Sausage and spam is not the same, but to me they are in the same family. ;p

Hey WC - LOL! One of the staples of my, ummm... I guess "diet" would not be the best word to use. One of my guilty pleasures. At first glance, I thought you made Spam Temaki! Loved hearing your voice nad I think youy need to come up with many, many more vides.

Hehe - When I read "spam" in the comments that you left on my blog, I thought I read wrong. You did say "spam"! Hehe - between your spam and Tigerfish's pork floss and sausage sushi, life has just gotten more interesting! I have to try some of these interesting combinations!

Hey, this is great you know. I usually do a fried brown rice with few of those spicy seaweed sheet with spam, yummys ! Wraps like that are great for the summer time :)P/S: Chubby wanna go to that place I told you - LM, El Monte, make sure he tags u along hehe :)

Hi e*,Thanks! I've got com ga Hai Nam on my list if you'll just be patient. Otherwise, if you search for recipes, look for the methods I've mentioned when discussing authenticity in my post about Gabbi's.

Elmo,Hmm. Think I can film myself driving and cooking? Whoa, that's a whole new level of food blogging that I don't think I'm quite capable of yet. ;)

Yich,Spam? All that processed meat can't be good for baby. :P

Tigerfish,You crack me up woman! BTW, the Hawaiians also make Spam musubi with Portugese sausage, which is shaped like Spam. But hey, it's sausage so we're still thinking alike! ;)

Zoey,No tripod. One hand filming, one hand trying to roll evenly. :)

Kirk,Spam temaki huh? Can I do that under 3 minutes?

t,Yup. I had enough left over to make her one when she came to my house.

W&S,Well, if you can't find a Japanese restaurant in Frankfurt, Spam should be a whole lot easier to find no? :)

PE,Hehe, I hide behind the camera, not in front of it. But thanks for the compliments.

CP,Spam-a-lot? :)

Kev,Thanks! Actually, I was too embarrassed to have someone else filming me! I closed the door so no one else could hear me even!

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